Review
Shortall’s greatest gift is not his multi-instrumental agility but his editorial restraint. While expanding corto.alto into a crowded hub of international collaborators, SOME SMALL FORTUNE resists the diluted bloat typical of major-label leaps by keeping its arrangements volatile, taut, and sharply condensed.
The music stays anchored to his core Glasgow rhythm section, particularly Graham Costello’s melodic, rapid-fire hi-hat patterns, which bristle beneath the chopped, pitched vocal slices of "TEMPLE" and ground the classic symphonic strings sweeping across "THIEF." Shortall integrates visiting voices as complementary textures rather than distracting showcases: Vector’s rapid-fire delivery cuts through the churning, worming bass synths on "GO," while Mick Jenkins settles effortlessly into the low-lit, swampy pocket of "WHODIS."
When the distorted, slow-building guitar drive of "IJUSTIDONTKNOW" subsides into the acoustic hush of "NOBLEHILL," Jacob Alon’s operatic falsetto lands with unforced dramatic weight. It is an uncommonly disciplined record that corrals divergent impulses—from fractured breakbeats and acoustic piano solos to cinematic orchestration—into continuous, unified forward motion.
